Retired civil servant and chairman of Centre for Policy Research will be the chairman of the committee. The other members are Rathin Roy, director of National Institute of Public Finance and Policy;Aromar Revi, director of Indian Institute for Human Settlements; Jagan Shah, director of National Institute of Urban Affairs; and K.T. Ravindran, former dean of School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.

The committee has arrived in Visakha[apatnam on Friday evening and visit places around Visakhapatnam and hold discussions with District officials like collector and others. There after the committe has to visit Rajamiundray Vijayawada, Guntur and Ongole to explore the capital city. in the second round the committe will visit Kurnool , Trupati and nellore

In
Focus

The Committee has asked the public opinion on selecting the Capital and many have responded to it.

The Andhra and Rayalaseema towns are eagerly having their capital in their own regions. In fact The Rayalassema City Kurnool was the capital of Andhra which was separated in 1953 and later the Andhra and Hyderabad merged each other and formed as Andhra Pradesh in 1956. Now the same Kurnool is to select as they had sacrificed their capital for Hyderabad by some Rayalaseema politicians.

Actually then the Phoonch Committee hwhich was constituted to select the capital had advised between Vijayawada and Guntur. But because of the predominance of Communists in Vijayawada area it was by passed and the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru had chosen Kurnool as capital which is 250 Kms to Hyderabad.

Now the Sivarama Krishnan committee is doing the same job and this time they are working out number of proposals like Gandhinagar, Bhubaneswar and Chandigarh.

Whatever it is all are unite on one thing It should not be like Hyderabad. The capital should not be centralized and all offices and institutions and development concentrated in one city.

Andhra itself an irrigation oriented region and land is a scarce and more over costly. Take for instance Krishna and Godavari districts where ther is no government land of ten acres. If we go for any project government has to buy land at large price.

But, the place Vijayawada which is centrally located geographically in Andhra and Rayalaseema is the accurate place to establish the capital. The surrounds of Vijayawada city is having thousands of Krishan delta lands which are more expensive. Fortunately between the Vijayawada and Guntur at Mangalagiri where abundant forest land and barren land is available which is sufficient for establishing capital. The total extent of the forest land at Mangalagiri block under Tadepalli reserve is about 485 hectares, and it is believed that this is being targeted for declassification to host the new capital. Moreover there is other land available in and around Mangalagiri to locate many other offices. The distance between Guntur and Vijayawada is just 28 Kms and there was a Nagarjuna University spreaded into 300 acres in between two cities. Mangalagiri is 10 Kms away to Vijayawada and it is under the urban agglomeration of Vijayawada. According to 2011 census Vijayawada Urban Agglomeration population put around at 15 lakhs and Guntur is at 9lakhs. The whole Urban Authority which covers Vijayawada, Guntur, Tenali and mangalgiri would be in and around 50lakhs population.

The area of Vijayawada urban authority consists of Krishna and Guntur districts, when the area comes to water reserves is on the banks of Krishna River. There is one more reserve forest area is in Nuzvid revenue division which is also nearby Vijayawada.

Already many representations from citizens’ and industrialists side have gone to Government to make Vijayawda capital which is more access to other places. The director of School of Planning and Archtecture of Vijayawada has also given his report to local chamber of commerce that the vIjayawada is the best suited capital city when compared to other cities which are competing.

Visakhapatnam is the strong contender for Vijayawada and if the committee goes impartially they definitely select Vijayawada. Regarding infrastructure Viajaywada and Visakhapatnam having the same but Vizag is a sea port and Machilipatnam which is 60 Kms away to Vijayawada is also upcoming sea port and once it was a business port for Britishers. Botha re having airports to land broader aircrafts and Vijayawada is a biggest Railway junction connecting entire North and south and east of the nation. It is the second biggest in the nation.

The city of Vijayawada is a junction point for Chennai and Kolkata. It is a gate way to north usually say. It is a medical hub and having number of super specialty hospitals. Also an educational hub having five medical colleges in and around Vijayawada and Guntur besides first ever medical University called NTR Health University. It has veterinary college and central institution like school of planning and architecture.

Still now it is under the cloud as Hyderabad is very near and no government has shown interest to develop it. Now it is the chance to Vijayawada to have the prestige of Andhra Pradesh capital.

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